Europe has 44 countries on this count, and the small ones end most runs
France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom arrive before anyone has to think. The Nordic countries follow, then Poland, Ukraine and the rest of the east. The board slows in two places. The first is the microstates: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City have fewer people between them than a mid sized city, and they are easy to forget precisely because they are small. Malta, an island nation south of Sicily, tends to go missing with them.
The second is the former Yugoslavia. Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia were republics of one federation until it broke apart from 1991, and holding six names where an older map showed one takes deliberate effort. Play it once and you will see which of the two catches you.
Which countries count as Europe here
The 44 are the countries the UN M49 geoscheme files under Europe, which is the convention this site and the Geography app use for every continent. Russia is on the board in full, even though most of its land lies east of the Urals. Türkiye, Cyprus, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are not: the UN places all six in Asia, so they are on the Asia countries quiz instead. Type one here and the quiz tells you where it went rather than calling it wrong.
Vatican City is on the board, because the Holy See, which governs it, is one of the two UN observer states in the 195 this site counts. Kosovo is not, because it is not a UN member state. Published answers to the question run from 44 to 51 depending on where those lines are drawn, and how many countries are in Europe sets out each count and who uses it.
Tricks that make the 44 stick
Go by region rather than by alphabet. The UN splits Europe into four: Northern Europe has 10 countries, Western Europe 9, Southern Europe 15 and Eastern Europe 10. Run through each in turn and you will notice the gap in your own map long before the clock does.
Then pair the names people mix up, Slovakia with Slovenia and Latvia with Lithuania, and sweep the Adriatic coast from Slovenia down to Albania, then fill in Serbia and North Macedonia inland. The method is written out properly in how to remember every country in the world, and the capitals quiz, set to Europe, takes the same countries from the other side.